Flight of Pythias
by Majokai Yukiko
Summary: Slash. JackWill, Reincarnation. William Turner was just a normal white collared office worker, until his life changed after meeting someone at his office's annual dinner and dance party.


**Flight of Pythias | Chapter One**

**A Pirates of the Caribbean Fanfiction by Majokai Yukiko**

**Pairing: Jack + Will**

**Rating: PG**

**Warning: Slash**

**This is an amateur effort and does not intend to infringe on the rights of Jerry Bruckheimer, Disney Pictures and their associates. **

**A/N: I'm supposed to have posted this up long ago, but my hard disk crashed and I was preoccupied with trying to get it back up. Thank God I had a spare copy of this saved, or I might never be able to show this to anyone else. **

**Dedicated to Permetaform**

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If there was anything William Turner hated in this world, it would be to have to attend his company's annual Christmas dinner-and-dance party. Again. Perhaps he was just a little old school in his thinking, or perhaps he just felt terribly uncomfortable having to interact with a large crowd (inclusive of his boss' beautiful daughter Elizabeth) that was bound to be there. He was adamant that Christmas should be celebrated with family or even a lover. Of which he had neither. 

Will shook his head ruefully. What a sad life he had! His father, whom he was named after, had mysteriously went AWOL on his mother and he when he was only a young boy. Nobody knew where Bootstrap Bill disappeared too. His mother had resolutely refused to speak about her lost husband, even up to her death a couple of years back. 

While it was not exactly his fault that he had such a miserable childhood to talk about. What really fazed others was that the twenty-six year old William Turner, with his drop-dead gorgeous body attained from hours of practice at fencing (three hours a day, to be exact), deep chocolate puppy dog eyes and gentlemanly composure, had never dated AT ALL! This might sound darn stupid, but Will always thought there was someone he should be waiting for, someone he should be saving himself for… 

Whatever. Will adjusted the collar of his shirt with the reflection off the closed elevator doors. He would have thought a more formal dress code would have been more suitable for the occasion. But it was Elizabeth Swann and Anamaria who were in charge of the event this year and they had insisted on doing something different. God only knows what cards the two feisty girls had hidden up their sleeves. 

The lift door opened with a 'ping' and Will stepped in, shoulders brushing briefly past someone who was about to get out. 

Will gasped and heard the other man did the same. The contact was electric and Will knew they both felt it. In the short moment when they touched, the brunet thought he was transported back into a different time when he could smell the salty sea breeze, feel the heat of a forge, and hear the loud metal clank of blades. 

_"You sure 'tis wise, boy? Crossing blades with a pirate?" _

He spun around, wanting to take a good look at the stranger. But the doors were almost closed and all he was left with was the view of a single Kohl-lined eye. 

*** 

Will stepped out of the elevator into near darkness. A soft female hand grabbed his arm gently and slowly led him further into the room. 

"Glad you turn up, Will," Elizabeth laughed, squeezing his arm teasingly. "The concert's about to start soon. The vocals was late, so they needed a little more time." 

He nodded dumbly. A concert? Never before had he heard of a company holding a *concert* during their annual dinner and dance event. Well, then again, it was Elizabeth and Anamaria in charge this year. Anything could be possible when the two of them put their minds to it. 

"What? You're drunk, again?!" Anamaria's voice suddenly boomed from behind the curtains. "No, put down that bottle. I'll slap you...don't you 'Anamaria me!" The woman's head suddenly peeked out from the curtains, eyes squinting in the close-to-complete darkness. 

"Yea, he's there...look, you have to go out...no! Take the rum away from him!" It was then when Will realized that only one of the microphones was plugged in to the sound system and what he and the rest of the crowd were hearing was only one part of the conversation. He chuckled lightly himself, trying to imagine the outraged expression on Anamaria's face when she realized that mistake. 

There was a noise akin to a growl and soon after, the woman stepped onto stage, a guitar hanging off her shoulder strap, its cord trailing back towards the end of the stage. The room dimmed further. 

'Must be for effect', Will thought, though he wondered briefly how the band was planning to play when they could not see. Well, unless they were so well practiced that it did not actually matter to them. 

"I never knew Ana's in a band," he whispered to the woman next to him, who only hushed him up and directed his attention back to the stage, to Anamaria who was trying to introduce the latest addition to her band. 

"And here's the Cap'n, our new singer, if only for tonight! Everybody, let's welcome 'Ed'!" 

From off the stage, only the vague outline of the new vocalist could be seen. Will smiled and leant back against a pillar, the band started playing a standard opening riff. 

And nearly fell when he heard *that* voice. It was so fluid, so perfect and so...familiar...in the crazy split second, Will thought he felt himself shift in time, returning back to a different place, in a completely different century...of sea breeze, of rum...and of home. 

_"That is a wonderful trick, except once again you are between me and my way out. And now you have no weapon." _

"Will?" The brunet snapped out of his reverie and forced a smile at the beauty beside him. 

"Yes? Did you say something?" Elizabeth shook her head, still frowning worriedly at him. The man only replied with a light squeeze on her shoulder and went back to the song. The stage was still dark, but Will had no problems whatsoever to pinpoint the exact location of the vocalist, even with the distraction of having various speakers planted all over the room. 

He knew him. Part of him yearned to him as surely as moth to fire. Every instinct in him was telling the same thing. That he knew him. 

Strains of soft music filled the room, a great contrast to what was usually played by similar rock bands. But taking a quick gander of his colleagues, nobody was bothered by it. If not, they were all captivated by the voice of that elusive singer. 

"Waited so long in this darkness // For the day to say I'm sorry // Counting the seconds, counting the minutes // Till I can hold you in my arms again" 

"Maybe it's too late for me to say I missed you // Or how much it had hurt // Without you by my side // Let me feel..." 

"That agony of a thousand years // Caused by what I cannot say with a thousand words." 

"Jack..." Will murmured and then gasped suddenly, bringing up a hand over his mouth. Where did that name come from? A loud thud from the stage betrayed a vocalist frantically trying to escape to the back. Without thinking, Will pushed himself off the wall and hurried to the side of the room, where he knew the shortcut to the backstage would be. 

Not knowing the reason why, Will only prayed to whoever that was listening up there that he could at least speak to him for a while. What he would say then, Will had no idea. 

*** 

The way to the backstage was chaotic. Apparently, nobody in the band was all too happy about having their lead singer pulling the disappearing trick on them so early in the show. Anamaria was the most upset of them all. Even from the stairway, which was quite some distance away from the band, Will could hear the colorful language the woman was sprouting. 

Wow...he wanted to say, in response to his colleague's level of profanity. He never knew one could insult another from his great grand Aunt to his family cat in Texas in so little words. Just as Will was about to make his way of the short flight of stairs leading up the backstage, a figure suddenly appeared round the corner and lunged straight at him. 

Or at least, it had seemed so to him when he let out a yelp and tumbled off the stairs, together with the culprit who had knocked him down in the first place. 

"Watch it!" He yelled, pain flickering across his handsome face, while he tried to push the figure off him. The figure was like a statue, unmoving. Will wondered if the man was unconscious, until he noticed a pair of dark soulful eyes looking back at him, as if drinking in his very essence. The eyes closed, eyelids squeezed tightly together as if in pain and then opened with a too familiar roguish light shining from them. 

"Jack...?" 

_He remembered eyes. The same eyes that had enticed him ever since he first knew the man. It was the promise of what those eyes could give that had set him on this route. Springing a man from prison, sailing under a pirate's command, battling a crew of living dead cursed by the Heathen gods...and now the same eyes that smiled mockingly at him from behind the bars again, as if the world did not matter. As if this man was not about to die the next day._

_William Turner Jr. always thought this pirate that the sort of eyes and smile that could make you swear undying love to, the sort of charm that would make you fall to your knees and beg to have his children, only if he would be so kind as to smile at you once more. _

_"Will, me boy!" The pirate laughed, lying back on the straw with a cheerful grin on his face." Come to see ol' Jack, aye?" _

_"Aye," Will agreed, sitting down on the straw, on the other side of the cell. Taking off his new hat, he set it beside him and smiled sincerely back at his new found friend. The man he had shared life and death with, and would gladly share life and death with again, if given the chance to. _

_Two grown men, sitting in the near darkness. Both waiting for the dawn. _

_"Strange huh?" Jack suddenly piped up. Will raised an eyebrow curiously. "Y'd think the Commodore would want ta kill me right old early in the morn, why did he have it in the noon then?" _

_"Maybe he can't wake up in time?" Will tried, not expecting the other man to just burst out laughing, grasping at his stomach, and rolling in the straw with mirth. How ironic. This pirate had so much more life in him now...yet by noon the next day, he would just be another corpse hanging from the hangman's noose. _

_"And you might jus' be right!" _

_The blacksmith picked up his hat and got up on his legs, brushing the dirt off the hat. He could already see the dawning light outside streaming in. It was time for him to leave and make closure with this chapter of his life, and to begin another one. _

_"Will?" He turned around, expecting some form of resignation on his captain's face. But he was only greeted with the pirate's signature smile. _

_"Nice hat," he said simply. Will offered a smile and walked up the steps, almost breaking into a run once he left the cellar. _

_He would have closure. And he already knew where his place was, how the next chapter would be written. _

_But first, he would need his swords. _

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End of Chapter One

Continue to Chapter Two


End file.
